Post navigation

Yorks Bakery Cafe, Newhall Street

A short walk north of Birmingham’s New Street Station (its website says seven minutes, I reckon I can do it in five, even if it’s all uphill) and even closer to Snow Hill Station, Yorks Bakery Cafe has just about everything you could want: fantastic coffee from espresso machine or brew bar, including cold brew, a choice of 16 teas, a brunch menu served until four o’clock, loads of fabulous cakes…

Pause for breath…

… a wide range of seating, in three different areas, free wifi, friendly, helpful staff (who even arranged for the sun to come out for my visit).. The list goes on. If you’re not convinced by now, I’m not sure you ever will be, but just in case…

The coffee is from London roasters, Caravan, which is consistently turning out coffee I like, and Yorks is up there with the best of them when it comes to making great coffee. There’s a comprehensive range of espresso-based drinks, but the real sign of excellence is the brew bar which offers V60 pour-over or Aeropress for one and Chemex or Cafetiere to share. There’s a choice of three beans at the brew bar and a seasonal single-origin espresso bean.

February 2016: Newhall Street has now closed, the building undergoing a major refurbishment. As a result, the mantle of Yorks Bakery Cafe has passed to the new cafe/roastery on Stephenson Street, which is even closer to New Street Station.

Yorks Bakery Cafe is somewhere I’d heard a lot about and was also recommended by a friend from Wolverhampton as the one place I had to go to when in Birmingham. These recommendations can be a double-edged sword: what to say if you really hate a place? Fortunately, I needn’t have worried: Yorks is lovely.

From the moment I stepped through the door, I was sold. It’s a big place: high ceilings, exposed air-conditioning conduits, wooden floors and plain, painted walls. The main part is neatly split in two by the counter, creating two seating areas, one out front by the counter, flooded with light from the windows; the other, behind the counter, a little darker, slightly less hectic. The lack of windows is compensated for by multiple light bulbs hanging down from the high ceiling, giving it a sense of space.

A corridor on the left-hand side connects the two areas and extends back to provide access to the toilets. Opposite these, right at the back, is a third, much smaller seating area, with a couple of tables. A bar, compete with bar stools, also runs along part of the corridor. The seating is wonderful, an equal mix of low tables with armchairs and sofas, and normal tables with surprisingly comfortable plastic bucket chairs for those who are eating.

One word of caution: Yorks is loud, not in a bad way, but it’s an echoing space and, while I was there, full of chatty people competing with the background music. If you sit out front, you have the additional noise from behind the busy counter. For me it was just the right side of oppressive, but if you have problems with background noise, you might find Yorks a little overwhelming on a busy day. That said, while I was there, the small seating area at the back was empty and very quiet.

Turning to the coffee, there were so many options that I thought I better experiment. The espresso range looked tempting, with the piccolo and flat white probably edging out the other options. However, I decided to save that for another visit, turning instead to the brew bar and the Tanzanian Ruvuma AAA. I approached this with a little trepidation since it was described as “like a delicate black tea with a sweet acidity”. I decided it was best tackled as an Aeropress and was rewarded with a surprisingly pleasant, very smooth, not too complex coffee, which was sweet, but not unpleasantly so. I’d have preferred a little more body and perhaps slightly more bite, but that’s being picky.

It being lunchtime, I skipped cake (with a plan to make up for it later in the day) and perused the brunch menu which was being served until four o’clock. I wish everyone else would take a leaf out of Yorks’ book: brunch should be served until at least two o’clock.

I chose poached eggs on toast (it was either that or pancakes; let me tell you, I was tempted) and while I enjoyed them, I found them too salty, not so much as to spoil the experience, but enough for me to notice. My only other complaint would be the relative lack of vegetarian options: an Eggs Florentine to go with the Eggs Benedict would have been nice.

If you liked this post, please let me know by clicking the “Like” button. If you have a WordPress account and you don’t mind everyone knowing that you liked this post, you can use the “Like this” button right at the bottom instead.

Were you reading it on a phone, tablet or computer? I rarely use my phone to view the site and only find it mildly annoying on the computer. I wonder if I should put in a second set of pictures without captions? The ideal solution would be if you could switch the captions off, but that doesn’t seem to be an option.

I’m glad you liked it. I actually agree with you on the decaffeinated coffee; maybe it’s something I should starting asking about and making a note of.

I drink quite a bit of decaf and if I’m doing a few cafes in a day, it can be quite nice to have a decaf option somewhere along the way. There are also people who need to steer clear of caffeine for medical reasons.

The two justifications for not stocking decaf I most frequently come across are:

The second is a business decision (although if it’s not there, there won’t be demand, so it could be chicken and egg) while the first I just don’t accept. Most of the good roasters do a very good decaf blend (or single origin bean).

Absence of cakeage…you did at least taste those samples, right?
Agree on the vegetarian options being rather scant. Especially with such a predominance of eggs on the menu: makes a visit hard for an egg-averse veggie.
Not that I mind having to take cake instead. Especially ones such as these, freshly and totally baked in-house.